Yes, it is official. We are two and a half hours into Worlds 2015 and North America and Europe are undefeated. I have sent a petition to Rito requesting that we call this epic tournament on account of levels of epic that cannot possibly be heightened. Should they decline, which I highly doubt, we may have to bask in our glory like it’s a Navy shower, because H2K and SKT T1 are in champ select.
Fnatic def. Invictus Gaming
We have entered the time of the Juggernaut, and Patch 5.18 promises to shake up this years’ tournament in a way we have never seen before. Fnatic exemplified this by… not selecting at a single one of the OP picks. As Joshua “Jatt” Leesman commented at the conclusion of the draft, Fnatic played the pick/ban like it was 5.12, even throwing the omnipresent Seong “Huni” Hoon Heo on an old school TP/Ignite Hecarim.
While many predicted that the European kings would come out on top in this match, there were doubts about Fnatic jungler Kim “Reignover” Ui-jin’s chances against the force that is IG’s Lee “KaKao” Byung-kwon. Indeed the early game did not go the way of the Fnatic, given the early advantage that Reignover’s Elise should have brought against KaKao’s Skarner, but an early Fnatic tower kept them in the driver’s seat for to start.
Both teams seemed to have jitters on the world stage, and the first kill of the tournament didn’t come for nearly 13 minutes, with Reignover’s Elise nabbing the kill. Once Fnatic had a taste of blood, which came alongside yet another turret, they never let go of the map pressure they had accrued in the early game. By the time the only real teamfight reared its head at 16:30, Fnatic held a substantial 4K gold lead and the brawl easily went the way of the European giants.
When all was said and done Fnatic forced a forfeit out of the third seed from China around 30:00. The final tally in kills was 8-1, with the Fnatic bot-lane having a 100% kill participation.
Cloud9 def. ahq
Cloud9’s presence in this tournament is nothing short of a miracle. After finishing seventh in the NA LCS Summer Split, they had to run the entire gauntlet to gain a ticket to Europe. Meanwhile ahq entered today as the best team in an LMS region that many argue is extremely underrated.
After 10 minutes, things seemed to be going according to plan for ahq. Xue “Mountain” Zhao-Hong’s jungle Rengar executed a flawless gank onto C9’s Nicolaj “Incarnati0n” Jensen’s Veigar with Liu “Westdoor” Shu-Wei picking up the First Blood gold for ahq.
Unfortunately for Mountain that was the only thrill he was able to derive from his jungle Rengar. Nearly every ultimate thereafter was either popped too early or dismantled due to poor pathing. Meanwhile Cloud9 hung in the game by taking objectives when they could, taking the first tower and dragon of the game in quick succession. Then, something kind of incredible happen.
Incarnati0n’s Event Horizons effectively shut down any attempts by the dual-assassin comp of ahq, and combined with C9’s Hai “Hai” Du Lam rather flashy but downright aggressive as hell Lee Sin, Cloud9 turned the match on it’s head, and even managed to pick up Baron Nashor in the 21st minute.
A reverse snowball that no one was expecting, Cloud9 wasted no time with their slight advantage. ahq were clearly unaware of the decisive calls and playmaking abilities of Hai. Combined with the fact that they had absolutely no answer for a Veigar who was already able to delete half the ahq squad when given the chance.
C9 stormed their way into ahq base and closed out the game in 23:00, with a final tally of 9-2 in kills, with C9’s ADC Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi taking part in all of them with a 5/0/4 KDA.
Closing
I just heard back from Rito, it seems as though they’ve gone ahead with the rest of today’s matches. Unfortunately the West’s reign as kings of the world has come to an end, as SKT T1 have just demolished our hopes and dreams by doing the unthinkable and beating H2K. More to come, enjoy the tourney.
